Tea and Cakes for Volunteers

Last week it was Volunteers' Week and there was a tea party at the Citizens Advice office where Polar works, for their volunteers.  Because we have been Bearnefits Champions and helped Polar at her community events, she said we could come to work with her and join in.

We were very excited about having tea and cake with the other volunteers and Polar said we could go out in the Secret Garden too, so we put on our Potteries Gold waistcoats and best boat clothes.  However, when we got to the office, we found that the tea table was across the door to the garden rather than in it, because it was a damp day with rain forecast.

We could see the garden out of the window but although it looked very leafy and good to explore, we were much more interested in the cakes on the table!

While Polar was talking to one of her colleagues, we jumped down from the desk she had sat us on and started to sniff the food.

There was fruit cake and cupcakes, a lovely chocolate sandwich cake, shortbread biscuits, scones and fresh strawberries, and it all looked absolutely delicious!

Hanley Bear started nibbling the edge of a piece of shortbread, I scooped some cream and jam out of the chocolate cake and Endon was picking some raisins out of the fruit cake, when Polar saw what we were doing.  She gathered us all up from the table.

 'Bad bears!' she scolded.  'The party hasn't started yet.  You have to wait for the others to arrive.'

'Boo!' I said.  'What if the human volunteers eat everything and leave nothing for small bears?'

'There's plenty here for everyone,' she replied.  'And it needs to look nice when the volunteers get here.  They won't want to eat things which already have small teeth marks in them.'

'More for us!' chuckled Hanley.  Polar gave him a hard stare, even harder than a small bear hard stare, and he went very quiet.

'We are sorry we were naughty bears,' said Endon.  Hanley and I nodded in agreement and drooped our ears to show we were sad.

Polar took us to her office to wait in her bag for the party while she did some work.  Before the party was due to start, she took us up to look out of the top floor window at the garden.

 

'If you behave yourselves, I'll bring you in another day and you can have a proper look at it,' she said.

We were very good bears after that. We met some of the other volunteers and a nice lady called Irene patted our heads and told us that she had seen our pictures and read our adventures on Facebook.  

We had to leave before the party finished, as Polar had to go out to talk to some people at a college, so we didn't get to try everything, but we had a nice surprise when we came home, as Polar had saved us a cupcake from the party, all for ourselves!  

We decided to be good bears and to share it with Grizzly although, by the time we had taken a mouthful each, Grizzly's share was quite small.  We don't think he minded too much.  As humans say, it's the thought that counts!